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QUEENS WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
Far Rockaway hospital recognized for stroke care
BY JENNA BAGCAL
In August, the American
Heart Association
and American Stroke
Association recognized St.
John’s Episcopal Hospital
for its outstanding care.
The Far Rockaway
Hospital received the
organization’s Get With
The Guidelines-Stroke Gold
Plus Achievement Award
and the Heart Failure Silver
Plus Quality Achievement
Award. According to SJEH
Vice President and Chief
Quality Officer Delburt
Joiner, it is the third year
the organization recognized
the hospital for stroke
diagnosis and treatment
and the first year for heart
failure management.
AHA and ASA evaluates
hospitals on the proper use
of medications and ensure
that other stroke and heart
failure treatments align
with the most up-to-date,
evidence-based guidelines.
The organization also
ensures hospitals educate
patients on managing
their health and schedule
follow-up visits prior to
discharging them.
“St. John’s Episcopal
Hospital is extremely
dedicated to improving
the quality of care for
our patients with heart
failure and stroke,” said
St. John’s CEO, Gerard
Walsh. “Implementing
the American Stroke
Association and American
Heart Association’s Get with
the Guidelines initiatives
provides the tools and
resources we need to track
and measure our success
in meeting the evidencebased
clinical guidelines
developed to optimize
patient outcomes.”
The AHA and AHA lists
stroke as the fifth leading
cause of death and a leading
cause of adult disability
in the United States. On
average, someone suffers a
stroke every 40 seconds and
almost 795,000 have new or
recurrent strokes according
to the organization’s data.
Joiner said that
improving SJEH stroke
care involved collaborating
with EMS to expedite
treatment for stroke
victims. The process
involves administering an
emergency CT scan to find
out what type of stroke a
person is experiencing.
From there, hospital
personnel can give the
patient thrombolytics or
clot-busting drugs within
60 minutes of their arrival.
The process also involves
providing evidence-based
medication, smoking
cessation education,
aphasia screenings and
using the National Institue
of Health’s Stroke Scale
Assessment.
SJEH has provided
thrombolytics within 60
minutes of the patient’s
arrival in 95 to 100 percent
of cases over the last three
years. The Stroke Gold Plus
Achievement’s standards
require that the timesensitive
stroke treatment
be administered in a timely
fashion only 75 percent of
the time.
More than 6.5 million
Americans live with heart
disease, which is one of the
leading causes of premature
death in the Rockaways.
SJEH implemented a Heart
Failure Task Force to ensure
that heart failure patients
get key assessments and
treatments documented by
care providers. According
to SJEH, 90 percent of its
heart failure patients get
this care within the first
day of admission.
Treatment involves that
those at risk for blood clots
receive anti-coagulants,
vaccinations for pneumonia
and other illnesses, smoking
cessation counseling, and
60 minutes of heart failure
education, in addition to
advanced care classes if
needed. The task force
allows the patient care to
remain consistent amongst
residents, attending
physicians and nurses
while lowering the length
of stay, which decreases
risk of infection and other
complications.
“Attaining the Gold-
Plus award for the
third consecutive year
illustrates the tireless
efforts and commitment of
St. John’s team members to
successfully integrate the
Get With the Guidelines
criteria and metrics for
heart failure and stroke
care into our clinical
practice to achieve the best
possible outcomes for our
patients,” said Joiner.
SJEH exterior Photo courtesy of SJEH